SOMETHING LEFT BEHIND

​Something Left Behind tells the story of The Wedding Present’s much-heralded 1987 debut album,“George Best”. Exploring the 30 year lifespan of a record that has come to define youth in the minds of so many and has been labelled the “greatest break-up album of all time”.Featuring interviews with all four original band members, key players in the record’s history plus themajor influence behind its very existence, this film also follows the album’s life story through the eyesof the fans who have grown old alongside it.

Where to start with this film? As a 30 year long Wedding Present fan - bearing in mind that this documentary is on that very band - maybe that would a good place!Of course it all starts with the Wedding Present; but as I was watching, I realised I was observing a very important part of British culture. John Peel, bands forming at university, demo tapes, pub gigs, bands making their own record sleeves!The John Peel scenes, with his meticulous record keeping and his genuine care and determination to give each band’s demo a chance, was a tear jerker for me.From that I was soon back with the band. The George Best album to be precise. The debut album that secured the Wedding Present’s place in music history. Soon though, relationships and dare I say, emotions, are filtering through the narrative.The George Best album has been labelled ‘the ultimate breakup album’, with good reason indeed. Each song is packed with the boy Gedge’s emotions after splitting up with the love of his young life.I have always thought that any art keeps the emotion it was created with, maybe this is one of the reasons this album can still bring 50 year old men to tears!We are treated to some lovely cinematography in the last third of the film. It’s a fleeting, small travelogue sequence that opens the film up, leading into a trip down memory lane by original guitarist, Peter Soloka. It is wonderful to be treated to insights by the original band members.The film touches on production as well. The role of the producer challenged elements of the band during the recording of George Best. I wondered if the subject of producers and recording, i.e. a third person telling the artist how to record, was still open for debate today.The film is a charming account of one of Britain’s stepping stone albums, from a band which are, to my mind, a National Treasure. However, as I’ve mentioned it’s more than that, and could be shown in any university as part of a social studies degree for example.It should also be watched by any aspiring band, if only to show how lucky they have it now!Ultimately, whichever level you watch it on, you will enjoy this film because it’s brilliant.

Andrew Jezard the director found time to talk to me about the film :

Hi Andrew, thanks for talking to me, firstly:​​I’m interested in which came first for you with this film, ‘The Wedding Present’, or the ‘documentary’? Or was it one of those joyous unions? Are you a fan?

The band and the documentary almost arrived simultaneously for me. I was aware of them before but the first time I actually saw them play live was on the 20th anniversary George Best tour in London. Seeing the crowd that night, their passion for the album and the fact it had clearly been with them throughout their lives immediately attracted me to this story.I went along to that gig with Shaun Charman, the band’s original drummer. I have known him for years as we support the same football team but I didn’t know back then that he was a musician. It wasn’t until one particularly dull game away at Yeovil in 2007 that he let on that he “used to be in a band.” As soon as he mentioned the band’s name I was very intrigued to hear more and we then spent the entire second half discussing music and sharing bands that we liked. It was soon after that we made plans to go to the George Best show.I was only seven years old when the album was first released but, despite discovering it later, the songs on that record (and Tommy) became enormously important to me. Subsequently I’ve worked my way through the full back catalogue. David is still a great songwriter to this day and it was a real pleasure to see the band operate on tour throughout the last year.

​With David and the Wedding Present’s tireless tours and work, how did you manage to pin David down? Did production go smoothly? Any interesting outtakes I can buy....?

As you say the band do tour an incredible amount. The schedule is pretty relentless and always has been since those early days. We managed three main interview shoots with David throughout the production. Two were in the same theatre location and were almost the first thing I shot for the film and also the last. It was great to re-visit the main interview almost a year later as a degree of trust builds up when working with someone for that time.I am also really pleased with the footage gathered at David’s house going through all his archive. I really wanted a more relaxed feel to this interview and tried hard to bring out David’s character and naturally dry wit, whilst also reminiscing with some poignancy about the band’s past and the importance and influence of John Peel on all of the guys.The rest of the footage with David was filmed at individual gigs that I covered or when I joined them on tour for periods. I was in the van for the final four George Best shows as we worked our way from Dover to Leeds via Stowmarket and Northampton. This was a great chance to capture the band away from the spotlights and I was able to get David’s thoughts on playing the album for the very last time at the exact moment he was driving the band into Leeds for that final homecoming show.

Did David have ideas about the production? It must be very important film for him...

When I first pitched the film idea to David over a curry he seemed immediately keen on the film. He was very quick to open up his book of contacts and I was soon setting up interviews all over the country and even out in Australia. The two interviews over there were with people who were absolutely key in the story of this album. One being Keith Gregory, the original bassist, who is notoriously reticent to talk about his band days. I am extremely grateful that he eventually agreed to be involved, which meant, importantly, that all four of the original band had their say. The other interview was so integral in getting the tone and narrative that I wanted for the film and definitely made up for the incredibly long journey and cramped economy seats!David left me alone to tell the story that I set out to, which was very important to me and I had full editorial control. In fact, when we did a post-screening q&a after the cinematic premiere of the film in Toronto it was the first time that David had even seen the documentary. Fortunately he liked it and the q&a could go ahead without any awkwardnessIt was a strange situation to be going into when starting this film. Obviously it documents a hugely important time in David’s life and deals with a body of work that has been with him for over 30 years. However it is his least favourite album for various reasons, which provided an interesting dynamic when presenting it as such an important record in people’s lives. It was actually nice to hear him acknowledge that importance in a recent q&a following a screening of the film in Brighton.​Great documentaries are notoriously harder to make than they look... ‘Something Left Behind’ definitely fits into the 'Great Documentaries' category in my book! What was the biggest challenge? Were you able to plan/story board in pre-production? Or did things come together in the edit?

I think we are a long way away from judging it as great! It will probably always be my version of what George Best is for David, in that it was the first feature length documentary I have made and will always have its flaws in my eyes.As for the planning of the film in advance: I had the idea bubbling away for 10 years since seeing that 20th anniversary show and the outline was fully formed by the time we started filming in 2017. I always wanted to frame it as a love story in terms of the flow of it with a distinct three act structure. This seemed to fit not only with the content of the film and story behind the record but also with the way that people connected with and relate to the album after all these years.Obviously documentaries grow and different stories emerge from the interviews and with every bit of archive that you research. However, that initial three act structure has remained firmly in place and those tales have been contained within. I think that is the thing that pleases me most about the finished film. The fact that a story I thought was worth telling 10 years ago has proved to be worth telling in that manner after all these years. The album may be gone as a live experience but the record and its story will live on. Hopefully the film will be in there somewhere as well to help illuminate that story further.

Thank you so much Andrew, and it is a great documentary, on a great band, "You may dispute this, but I’m right and you’re wrong!”